Phone numbers set for shake-up

By Lucy Battersby

October 25, 2010 — 11.44am

The communications regulator is set to overhaul Australia's telephone numbering system after noticing an increase in the use of internet-based phone calls, as well as general consumer apathy about the cost of calls.

Use of area codes, free-call numbers and special numbers set aside for satellite services and early-adaptors of internet telephony will be examined in an historical shake-up of the telephone numbering plan outlined in a discussion paper released by the Australian Communications and Media Authority this morning.

"The ACMA cannot predict exactly where [technology] developments are leading, but it is clear that they are leading away from consistency with the current numbering arrangements," the ACMA's paper said.

"Numbers have, in the past, served as a convenient and sensible means of achieving the communications policy objectives...However the pressures on numbering .... are causing difficulties in continuing to achieve these objectives."

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Geographic information inherent in fixed-line numbers was becoming less relevant as more calls were made over the internet, known as voice over internet protocol (VOIP), and as consumers paid less attention to call costs because of falling prices and the prevalence of mobile cap plans. The ACMA has asked whether geographic information such as area codes and pre-fixes would still be relevant in the future.

When the national broadband network is rolled out all connected households will be making phone calls over the broadband fibre connection, and based on current pricing would be charged the same for local as national calls.

"There is no technical obstacle to a number used in connection with a VOIP service being used in any place in Australia, challenging the traditional tying of geographic numbers to specific geographical areas," the ACMA pointed out.

"Many of the provisions in the Numbering Plan, such as those relating to costs of calls to particular numbers, are built around an assumption that landline phones would be the dominant form of communication."

Lower call costs from mobile phones have prompted the ACMA to ask whether there would need to be a distinction between mobile and fixed numbers in the future.

Free calls to 1800 and calls to local-rate 13 numbers would also be reviewed because these calls were only free or charged at local rates if made from a landline, and use of these services was declining in favour of mobile services.

The ACMA has asked whether it should abandon number pre-fixes for VOIP calls, 0550, and satellite numbers, 014, 881 and 882, given they were rarely used and had been replaced by numbers more familiar to consumers.

The ACMA ruled out lengthening telephone numbers to increase availability, as they were in the early 1990s.